always & forever

Part 3 - Not a boy. A man.

Camille's POV

"Come on, Millie! Throw the ball!" James's encouraging voice sounded above my brother's grumbling.

"You suck, Camille! You throw like a girl!" Kevin shouted from the side and it hurt to hear that. I was a girl, why was that a bad thing?

"Come on, Kev, give her a chance." James came to my defence, as always. The sun was setting and casting a low glow into the backyard, the last of the summer heat dying out with every passing minute. I threw the ball. "See?! That was awesome, Millie!" James's smile was radiant and filled with approval. What a nice boy, I thought. He never speaks to me like my brother, he never puts me down.

"James, you coming for dinner?" Kevin shot out right before walking inside. I so hoped he would! James was always so nice to me and made conversation at the dinner table that included me.

"Oh...no. Thanks though. Gotta get back, dad's barbecuing. See ya." My little eight year old heart felt so disappointed, but then he turned to me and smiled again, "Bye Millie! Good throw today."

That's the backyard he was inviting me to.

Me: ...why?

I tapped on my phone case as I tried to contain my runaway breath.

James: Just come. Wanna talk to you about something.

Oh God, oh God, what was going on?!

Me: ngl, sounds sus. Why are you being so weird and secretive? Come to the front door

Sounded normal right?! I doubted every word I typed.

James: fine, you win.

A minute later, I creeped downstairs so as not to wake my mom and Kevin, who bailed on me earlier, and discreetly opened the door to see James run up the porch steps. Fuck, he was so handsome, I was sure he could hear my heartbeat.

"Hey!" He whispered with a smile as he came up to the door and instinctively, I backed inside, letting him take a step in. Oh my God, help me someone, please! I was in my little white pyjamas, braless and shaking and he towered over me, his eyes taking in the sight of my barely clothed body. Why was he looking at me like that?

"Are you okay?! What's going on?!" I whisper yelled and gently closed the front door. James just stood there, looking me over but silent. "James? You okay?" Was he having an aneurysm, why was he so weird?

Just then, a car pulled into the driveway. My father. Shit. Even if James had been to our house a million times, this scene wouldn't go over well. "Oh no..." I mused as I stood on my tippy toes and peeked out the door window to see him stepping out of the car. "Quickly! Grab your shoes and come with me!" I woke up James who seemed to have turned into a lamppost.

I hurriedly locked the front door and tippy toed up the stairs, fighting with giggles as James obediently followed me, his face right in front of my ass, barely covered by my pajama shorts. All traces of alcohol had vanished from me at this moment and I was fully sober, for some reason taking James upstairs to my bedroom and listening for any sounds of my family members discovering this little illicit journey.

The front door unlocked at this moment and I panicked, quickly pulling James into my room and quietly closing my door, stifling my breath, lest my father hears and discovers us. There really would be no way to explain this.

Standing in the darkness, James was right in front of me and my entire body lost all feeling. What the fuck did I just do?! Why was he here? In my room? At two in the morning? Looking at me like I was an ice cream on a hot summer day?